In general, the processing of a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material, for example, a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "light-sensitive material"), comprises a color development step and a desilvering step. In the desilvering step, the developed silver produced at the color development step is oxidized (bleached) into silver salt by a bleaching agent having an oxidation action and removed together with unused silver halide from the light-sensitive layer by a fixing agent which forms a soluble silver. As the bleaching agent, a ferric (trivalent) ion complex salt (e.g., aminopolycarboxylic acid iron(III) complex salt) is mainly used, and as the fixing agent, a thiosulfate is usually used.
The bleaching and the fixing may be used individually as a bleaching step and a fixing step or may be conducted simultaneously as a bleach-fixing step. These processing steps are described in detail in James, The Theory of Photographic Process, 4th edition (1977).
The above-described processing is usually conducted in an automatic developing machine. Particularly, in recent years, a small-size developing machine called a mini lab. is installed at a shop and rapid processing service to users is being popularized. In the processing of color paper, as the developing machine is miniaturized and the rapid processing prevails, the bleaching agent and the fixing agent are used in the same bath as a bleach-fixing bath. On the other hand, in the above-described processing, for the purpose of resource saving and environmental conservation, low replenishment of the processing solutions is aggressively recommended. However, if the processing is conducted merely in a low replenishment of the developer, matters dissolved out from the light-sensitive material, particularly, iodine ions or bromine ions as a strong development inhibitor accumulate to reduce the development activity, thereby causing a problem of failure in the rapid processing. In order to reduce the accumulation of iodine ions or bromine ions and to achieve rapid processing, JP-A-58-95345 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") I JP-A-59-2323442, JP-A-61-70552 and WO87-04534 disclose a method of using a silver halide light-sensitive material having a high silver chloride content and this is considered to be an effective technique for achieving rapid processing in a low replenishing system of the developer.
JP-A-4-443 describes the processing of a silver halide light-sensitive material having a high silver chloride content with a color developer containing a hydroxyalkyl-substituted p-phenylenediamine derivative having a specific structure, whereby the dye image can be excellent in the stability and the low replenishment and the ultra-rapid processing can be achieved.
Further, the bleach-fixing is also being demanded to be greatly expedited and improved in the solution stability. However, if a short-time bleach-fixing is conducted after the rapid color development, the developing agent which is conventionally removed in the bleach-fixing step or the sensitizing dye or the dye for preventing halation used in the light-sensitive material cannot be removed sufficiently and as a result, stains on an image after the processing, namely, blurs on the white background of an image are generated to trash the image as cannot endure viewing. Accordingly, a desilvering processing composition and a processing method capable of overcoming the above-described problems have been keenly demanded.
In the processing of a silver halide light-sensitive material containing silver chlorobromide or silver iodobromide, an onium salt represented by a quaternary ammonium salt or an organic base taking a conjugate acid has been conventionally used in the bleaching bath as a bleaching accelerator so as to accelerate the desilvering as described in JP-A-49-84440, JP-A-61-151147, JP-A-62-129854, JP-A-62-135833, JP-A-1-211757 and JP-A-1-213653. As described in JP-A-1-211757, the bleaching accelerator is useful particularly in processing a color reversal light-sensitive material for photographing or color negative light-sensitive material for photographing using a high silver amount emulsion.
However, in these patent publications, a method for rapidly removing or accelerating the removal of a developing agent or a coloring material such as a sensitizing dye or a dyestuff is not known. Further, it has been found that some desilverization accelerators deteriorate the image stability when the water washing or stabilization processing time is reduced and they are unsuitable for the rapid processing including water washing.
JP-A-5-303185 discloses rapid removal of a developing agent or a dye remaining in the light-sensitive material by using a bisguanidine compound. The bisguanidine compound may surely remove a developing agent or a dye remaining in the light-sensitive material to a certain degree, which is, however, not satisfactory, and the compound is still bound to a problem of discoloration generated when the processed light-sensitive material is stored under a high temperature and a high humidity, hence, an improvement is demanded.
In JP-B-49-26140 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), JP-B-49-26900, JP-A-55-87145, JP-A-60-260952, JP-A-61-4050, JP-A-61-4054 and JP-A-61-35447, other guanidine compound is added to a developer or a stabilization solution, however, any compound is insufficient in the removal of a developing agent or a dye remaining in the light-sensitive material and bound to a problem of generation of stains, hence, an improvement is demanded.